Thanks again Old Snowy. However, as I say above, the DVLA issue is a bit of a red herring in this case because, to find the vehicle owner, they only need to look at the photo that they say they took - the name of the car hire company (a small local company operating from one location) is on large stickers on each side of the car and on the boot.

Once again, sincere thanks to you all for your responses. So much wise and helpful advice. I'm most tempted by Old Snowy's advice to do "precisely nothing - and certainly does not pay". That's exactly what I'd do - if it were not for the fact that it was a hire car. So today I telephoned the car hire company, and asked what their policy would be if City Permits contacted them. I'm pleased to say that they would not pay the "ticket" and then recover the money from me. They would, however, give City Permits my details so they could contact me, and charge me an "administration fee" of £25. So, obviously I would rather not imvolve them. I've read the interesting points about whether or not City Permits can get the vehicle owner's name through the DVLA, and what to do if they do so unlawfully. While this is all good advice, I'm afraid it isn't relevant in this case. Tracing the car owner should be easy enough for them to do - the car (of which they have a photo) has large stckers proclaiming the hire company's name on the boot and on both front doors!! Add to that the fact that it is a small local company, and it would be no more than a five minute job for them to get my details. So perhaps I should be pre-emptive? Should I write to City Permits and tell them that, as a private company operating on private land, it is unlawful for them to issue a "Penalty Charge Notce", and therefore illegal for them to pursue payment for it, and that I now consider the matter closed and will not discuss the matter further? I think that should keep the hire company out of it, shouldn't it? Any advice?

Many many thanks to those who have responded so far. Sage advice! I don't live near Leeds, so I can't go and photograph the car park entrance or any notices, I'm afraid. Here are some screenshots from Google StreetView which might help. The car park entrance ... [ATTACH=CONFIG]55114[/ATTACH] The sign to the right of the entrance .. [ATTACH=CONFIG]55115[/ATTACH] Inside the car park - yellow lines indicate where I was parked [ATTACH=CONFIG]55116[/ATTACH] And the notices inside .. [ATTACH=CONFIG]55117[/ATTACH] You will notice that the signs inside are white lettering on a red background. However, the shot from outside shows the notices as blue letterig onn a white background. I don't know which pictures are more up-to-date. Assuming the bricks are standard sizes, the signs do appear to be about the right size - but I doubt if any driver is able to read all the 'small-print'.

On Sunday 21 December 2014, I visited friends in Leeds. I parked, as suggested by my friend, in the courtyard of the block of flats in which he lives (ie private land). On returning to the car (roughly 60 to 90 minutes later), I found a note stuck to the windscreen. The note was a reasonable facsimile of a parking ticket - a yellow and black plasstic envelope containing a form headed "Penalty Charge Notice" - but issued by a private firm (City Permits) on private land. I admit that the car was parked on private land without authorisation, but there was plenty of space as there were very few cars there at the time and, in my judgement, no obstruction or damage was caused. The form states, "The penalty charge of £85 is payable within 28 days of this notice. A discounted sum of £60 wil be accepted in settlement of the charge if received within 14 days fromm the date of issues (sic)." There are the usual threats of tracking me down through the DVLA and court action if the charge remains unpaid. A slight complication is the fact that the car was on hire from a local car hire company with whom I would like to keep a good relationship. Advice as to how to deal with this, would be very much appreciiated.

Nice post dragora. And .. welcome to the forum. Do start your own thread, when you're ready to tell your story. Let's see if we can help!

That's a good point Studley96. As has already been stated in this thread, I believe, the data belongs to the data subject and not to either the CRA nor (as they falsely claim) to the reporting financial institution. This point is even more relevant in cases where the financial institution has failed to satisfy a CCA request for an original agreement. It is usually a term of a credit agreement that the lender can 'share' your information - but if they can't produce an agreement .. how can they prove they have permission to pass on information (or even to store it themselves)? I'm sure it's a very valid argument, but, of course, the problem is enforcement. In theory it should be a simple matter of reporting them to the ICO, but unfortunately the only practical method of enforcement would be through the court system. Either way, a lot of time, effort, and even more time!

Hi there, and welcome to the forum. My advice would be to ignore their arrogance, and press ahead with your claim - using the templates from this site as guidance. Taking £140 from someone dependant on benefit payments seems fairly clear "financial hardship" to me, and would probably do so to a court or to the OFT as well. As for their advice on the Social Security Administration Act 1992, WHAT? Is that supposed to impress people with their legal knowledge? What counts is the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999! Have a look at the Preliminary Letter, if there are any important points there that you've missed, you should now send them a letter based on this. If you have covered all the points in your previous letter, then go ahead and send them the Letter Before Action. Good luck. And don't worry, there are many people on this site (I'm one of them!) who think £140 IS a big deal.

Petition signed. Letter coming off the printer now - will be posted 1st class this weekend. Please don't be downhearted, finlander. You ARE doing a great job!

Just dropping in to wish you luck. I'm afraid I don't have any practical help to give (joe1965 seems to be giving you good advice though), just 'moral support'. I've suffered from Powergen/e-on's appaling standards of customer care myself! I've heard that they've been voted No1 for customer care - if so, I dread to imagine what the rest must be like!! -

Hmmmm, photoman, now, THAT is an excellent point!!

Thanks for the congratulations. But I haven't done anything heroic! All I did was follow the process and not give in - "stubborn" rather than "brave"! Saka, congratulations to you too - you've already done the hard part. All you have to do now is keep on going. They'll give in, not quickly, and not without being as awkward as they can and dragging things out as much as possible .. .. but, they WILL give in. All you have to do is let them!

Because they settled at such an early stage (even before the LBA), and because the whole claim was relatively small, the interest, even at the "unauthorised overdraft" rate amounted to very little - less than five pounds I think - so not worth fighting over. Well, not this time!

**************WON****************** Yes, I think we can call it a win. I got back all the fees I'd asked for, but not the contractual interest I'd claimed. So, "good", I thought. But, they hadn't finished messing me about (with incompetance rather than malice I think). Apparently back on 10 February, when their "arrears" department restricted my internet account access, they also effectively suspended my account. That meant that, once the fees had been cancelled, and I had a little bit of money in my account, I went to a cash machine and .. .. had my card retained!!!! "We'll send you a new card in 7-10 days" "Can't you do it faster?" "No, because that's how long it takes." Nothing like logic, eh? In fact, the card never arrived. So I phoned up and was told it had been actioned so they'd cancel it and send me another card in 7-10days!!!! Now that some of my money was actually getting into my account, I paid of a few small bills, by cheque. Bad idea! The cheques bounced. (They shouldn't have done) so I sent replacement cheques. Even worse idea!! They bounced again. Moreover the recipients charged me for non-payment ("administrative fees" = unlawful penalties if you ask me). Why did the cheques bounce? Because, apparently, when little miss arrears suspended my account she also cancelled my cheque book, the whole of it. But NOBODY had told me!! I was happily sending out cheques in good faith, and being charged for the idiot bank bouncing them. Another complaint to Halifax, and, fortunately they agreed to reimburse me for the penalty charges the cheque recipients had charged me. There's got to be some sort of irony in that! All in all then .. a definite win, but with a few minor loose ends to tie up. **************WON******************

And here's what did happen next .. First, a letter from the ICO. They state that Barclays have told them that they hold statements for TWELVE YEARS. This means I should have been sent statements from 1994/5 to the present so the ICO have passed the case to their "Regulatory Action Division" to be reviewed by one of the ICO's "Remedies Officers". I don't know what that means, but it doesn't sound good for Barclays, does it? Next came a letter from Barclays; "blah, blah, waffle, blah .. I understand that copy statements for the period prior to January 1998 have now been issued to you. I would like to advise that Barclays only keeps copies of such documents for a period of 12 years." So, it's definite then - Barclays keeps data for 12 years (yah boo to Peter Townsend!!) And finally, a batch of statements arrived. Woo hoo? .. er .. no! They only sent, for some reason, statements from 10/01/1996 to 13/1/1998. So we're not there yet!!! I expected the rest would arrive separately within a day or two, but so far nothing. Having had to take a couple of days in hospital last week (nothing serious) I haven't chased them up yet. The plan now is: 1. see if they arrive in Monday's post (they won't of course) 2. phone them so they can give me a sensible reason (they won't of course) 3. County Court claim for non-compliance. I'm fed up. so far I only have statements going back to 10/01/1996 -

************WON************************* Got a letter from the B legal dept. with just two weeks to go before court date. They don't agree with my "legal analysis" (Ha), BUT ... " .. do, however, recognize that the sum at issue between us is relatively modest [WHAT!!!!] as such, it is not cost effective for either party to take this matter to trial." (Speak for yourself, mate - and just how has it been 'cost effective to make me wait over six months?) Anyway; full claim + interest + costs = Wooo hooo!! The only final irritant was that they wanted a confidentiality agreement - so I wrote back saying 'No - not unless you want to give some consideration'. Next a phone call (panic?) saying that they wouldn't pay any consideration (I didn't expect them to) and that I could just cross through the confidentiality clause (panic?), but could I return the signed acceptance at once by fax (don't have a fax, mate) or scan it and email so they could send me a cheque straight away? (panic, panic?) Of course I could, and I'll stop the court claim against you .. .. .. as soon as the cheque CLEARS!!! Payment was made the next day, not by cheque, but direct as cleared funds into my Barclays account (panic, set and match!!). So, like I said:- ************WON************************* ************WON************************* ************WON*************************